noirish Los Angeles - Page 173

GaylordWilshire · #**3441** Posted **Mar 31, 2011, 1:29 AM**

sopas: I'll have to check out those movies. I don't think I've ever seen The Dark Mirror.

And don't forget to take plenty of pictures of Corvallis Street! Knock on the French woman's door and ask for a tour! I'm curious about the interior...especially the stairs with the wrought-iron railing. "Get your things out of this house right now before I throw them in the street and you with them...."

ethereal_reality · #**3442** Posted **Mar 31, 2011, 3:22 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by shemp

I don't know if this has been posted, if it has I apologize for the double post. But I found this beautiful color movie of 1940s Los Angeles with a hauntingly serene Miles Davis score. ("It Never Entered My Mind" from: Workin' with the Miles Davis Quintet.)

This seems to be a movie compiled from different times. My favorite clips are the Brown Derby (0:17 - 0:22), Graumans Chinese Theater/Hollywood Blvd. (0:55 - 1:02), Paramount Studios ( 1:02 - 1:08), and an all too brief look at a semaphore traffic signal at Hollywood & Highland (1:15).

The video then inexplicably cuts at 1:39 to a bw film of the House Un-American Activities Committee with French subtitles! But for a short time we can catch a glimpse of late 1940s Los Angeles in all its beauty.

Thanks Ethereal for starting this great post, it has captivated me for many months now. Also, many thanks to all posters who have contributed. There are gems on every page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDRY7DzbRGM

shemp
We viewed the video VERY early in the thread, but I had forgotten about it until you placed the link in your recent post.
The video brought back all kinds of memories for me.

Thanks shemp!

ethereal_reality · #**3443** Posted **Mar 31, 2011, 3:57 AM**

'Noirish' photographs of L.A. jazz clubs I found on ebay.

below: The Haig at 638 S. Kenmore (located in an old house).

ebay

I then googled 'The Haig' and found several interesting photos.

detail of a photograph by William Claxton

unknown

Even though the 'Haig' sign says DINNERS it did not have a working kitchen....but by law the club had to serve food.
When a customer ordered a sandwich, the waiter stalled the customer while someone ran down the street to the Brown Derby for take-out.

latimesblog.com

below: The Harbor Inn.

ebay

I noticed the sign at the Harbor Inn advertising Shelly Manne.
below: Shelly Manne opened a legendary jazz club called 'Shelly's Manne-Hole' on Cahuenga between Sunset and Hollywood Blvd.

And NO....'Shelly's Manne-Hole' was not a gay bar.

:wink:

Los Angeles Past · #**3444** Posted **Mar 31, 2011, 4:06 AM**

They just don't make dives like these anymore.

gsjansen · #**3445** Posted **Mar 31, 2011, 10:47 AM**

Jazz in the Southland

miles davis at shelly's manne-hole 1968

Source: Corbis Images

Source: Corbis Images

Otto Preminger working with Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn on the soundtrack of "Anatomy of a Murder" at Columbia Studios on Gower 1959

Source: Corbis Images

Jacques Cernes, Marilyn Monroe, Milton Greene, and Mel Torme, take in Sammy Davis jr's show at the crescendo on the strip 1954

Source: Corbis Images

Sarah Vaughn, Louis Armstrong, and Billie Holiday, at Club Alabam 1950

Source: Corbis Images

Duke Ellington at Club alabam 1945

Source: Corbis Images

GaylordWilshire · #**3446** Posted **Mar 31, 2011, 8:41 PM**

USCDL

USCDL
Adams and Lucerne, September 1958: Arkansas governor Orval Faubus is hung in effigy in September 1958 for having shut down all Little Rock high
schools for the '58-'59 school year in his continuing stand against school desegregation. Less well known than the famous showdown between Faubus
and Eisenhower involving the National Guard a year earlier, the '58-'59 school year came to be called "The Lost Year." The brick store still stands, but
the vintage lamp standards and the building housing Glover--"The Greatest Name in Real Estate"--are gone. I'm not sure why the Glover sign was chosen
as the place to hang the effigy--perhaps Mr. Glover's sympathies lay more with Faubus than with the sensibilities of a rapidly changing West Adams.

JeffDiego · #**3447** Posted **Mar 31, 2011, 11:18 PM**

As usual, superb photos, all. Love those jazz club pics, ethereal. And Gaylord...isn't that great line you qutte from Mildred Pierce followed by the immortal "Get out before I kill you!!" You go girl!
Another series of tidbits about PRC Studios, dished up at an interesting site called Carfax Abbey:
http://carfaxabbey.blogspot.com/search/label/PRC
Among the gems of info. about "PRC Gals" such as Rosemary La Planche (Miss America 1941 and PRC Starlet) and Julie London, star of "Nabonga" (!) the author reveals the real identity of the notorious floozie GAIL TEMPEST, the gal in black swimsuit and crested hat who does the naughty little courtroom dance number that disgusts the old ladies on the jury in the Three Stooges' "Disorder in the Court."
Finally, yes, the LA Noir festival has an impressive line-up this year. Included is a totally-forgotten film that was recently restored (reported in LA Times), "Strangers in the Night," from Republic (1944). Also Joan Crawford in the entertaining camp classic, "Female on the Beach" (1955) ...tough-as-nails but hungry-for-love widow moves into a house in Newport Beach and soon encounters money-hungry stud.

MikeD · #**3448** Posted **Apr 1, 2011, 12:33 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffDiego

Another series of tidbits about PRC Studios, dished up at an interesting site called Carfax Abbey:
http://carfaxabbey.blogspot.com/search/label/PRC
Among the gems of info. about "PRC Gals" such as Rosemary La Planche (Miss America 1941 and PRC Starlet) and Julie London, star of "Nabonga" (!) the author reveals the real identity of the notorious floozie GAIL TEMPEST, the gal in black swimsuit and crested hat who does the naughty little courtroom dance number that disgusts the old ladies on the jury in the Three Stooges' "Disorder in the Court."

Curse you Jeff!!! That site looks great! Something else to keep me from guitar practice.

Ninja55 · #**3449** Posted **Apr 1, 2011, 2:58 AM**

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5053/...57b9bf1f_b.jpg

Some more of Lucca's.

Ninja55 · #**3450** Posted **Apr 1, 2011, 2:59 AM**

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5254/...52050e7e_b.jpg

Co-owner Bert Rovere on far right.

Ninja55 · #**3451** Posted **Apr 1, 2011, 3:01 AM**

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5140/...837cc19c_b.jpg

My grandma Emma (Bert Rovere's sister) behind the cash register

Ninja55 · #**3452** Posted **Apr 1, 2011, 3:07 AM**

Thanks to all the participants in this thread. The pics and histories are fascinating. I lived in Van Nuys for the first two months of my life and then my parents brought me to Vegas against my will! I have strong ties to old LA through my parents and grandparents and I have to admit I get home from work everyday and can't wait to see what's posted. Thanks everybody!!

esotouric · #**3453** Posted **Apr 1, 2011, 3:17 PM**

Just wanted to pull your sleeves to the fact that 1947project, the time travel blog series that has been mentioned here before, has joined Facebook and is retro-retroactively re-posting our favorite crime-a-day stories daily. Not everything is a re-post: yesterday we featured a brand new In SRO Land story about a very unusual bank robbery at 7th & Broadway, in the pre-metal-cladding Haas Building.

And finally, if you don't know about the Off Bunker Hill mailing list, a spin-off of the On Bunker Hill time travel blog, it's right here. While it is very low traffic, we'd sure appreciate if the L.A. history brainiacs of this wonderous thread were to join. When people have especially tough questions triggered by On Bunker Hill, they tend to post there. And sometimes people with interesting family histories in LA drop in. If you request membership, just say you read about it here, and you'll be approved.

gsjansen · #**3454** Posted **Apr 1, 2011, 5:58 PM**

i'm having quite the time reading through the posts over at the offbunkerhill google page.

i did want to post some photos that i found after reading Theodore Barrow's postabout the Emil Jean Kosa painting depicting city hall as viewed from bunker hill, showing both the old times building and the state building at the same time

this 1929 photo is the exact same view point of the painting

Source: LAPL

another image taken in 1929 showing the times building from a similar location

Source: USC Digital Archive

two images of the construction of the state building where the old times building is visible

Source: LAPL

1931 image of the state building under construction showing how it shared the same site with the times building

Source: USC Digital Archive

1931 image looking north on broadway between 1st and 2nd streets showing the construction of the new times building, as well as the old times building and the state building

Source: USC Digital Archive

1930 images of the groundbreaking ceremony of the state building showing it's proximity to the old times building

Source: USC Digital Archive

1935 image of the state building with quite the shadow being cast on it by city hall. the exact hill street spot where the perspective of the Kosa painting was painted from is nicely seen in this photograph

Source: LAPL

ethereal_reality · #**3455** Posted **Apr 1, 2011, 11:04 PM**

^^^great photos gsjansen!

I've posted quite a few cable railway photos but I somehow missed this one.

below: The cable car viaduct over the Southern Pacific rail yards (now the Los Angeles State Historic Park) 1889.

Metro Library Archive

This reminds me of the EL in Chicago. I wonder if there was ever a proposal to build an elevated rail system in downtown Los Angeles?

sopas ej · #**3456** Posted **Apr 2, 2011, 12:27 AM**

Wow, such great photos since I was last on here, which didn't seem very long ago! A few days or something? Stellar!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ethereal_reality

below: The cable car viaduct over the Southern Pacific rail yards (now the Los Angeles State Historic Park) 1889.

Metro Library Archive

This reminds me of the EL in Chicago. I wonder if there was ever a proposal to build an elevated rail system in downtown Los Angeles?

Funny you should ask that; yes, there was a proposal for an elevated rail system in downtown Los Angeles in the 1920s which would've also connected the various train depots downtown (as opposed to a single "union" station). But most of the local newspapers at the time, being conservative and supported by special business interests, ran stories with pictures of dark Chicago streets under the El; the LA Times ran such a photo with the caption "Even California Sun Would Balk At This" and even showed a picture of a train derailment on an elevated railway where the train was shown on its side on the street, having fallen off the elevated track, with the caption "Keep the 'L' Out Of Los Angeles." Harry Chandler of the LA Times was against elevated rail. These negative stories and ads helped defeat bond measures that would've supported elevated rail projects; there was lots of rhetoric in the LA Times saying that these structures would cast long dark shadows on streets, and that these elevated rails would eventually snake out of downtown and cast shadows on bungalows and yards.

All of this, btw, is mentioned in the very interesting book called "Inventing Autopia" which chronicles the development of how LA became so auto-centric.

ethereal_reality · #**3457** Posted **Apr 2, 2011, 1:56 AM**

Damn sopas_ej, you really know your Los Angeles history.

I'll have to check out 'Inventing Autopia'...it sounds like a very interesting book.

sopas ej · #**3458** Posted **Apr 2, 2011, 3:57 AM**

It's an interesting book indeed; quite good, actually.

______________________________________________

Contemporary photo of Fire Engine Co. No. 28., a firehouse built in 1912, courtesy of Google Maps. Located on the east side of Figueroa, just south of Wilshire. It's now a restaurant, which has been operating since 1989.

I've always wondered what the environment looked like around it when it was first built, being that it looks so out of place. Well...

This photo is from 1919, which shows the Samuel Calvert Foy residence, on the northwest corner of Figueroa and 7th. But look to the right, you can see the firehouse.

LAPL

And then of course the northwest corner of Fig and 7th later became the Paul Hoffman Studebaker dealership:

LAPL

Which of course became the Statler/Hilton/Wilshire Grand. You can see the little firehouse across from it on Figueroa.

LAPL

The Statler/Hilton/Wilshire Grand is supposedly going to be torn down to build a Korean-owned dual skyscraper monstrosity with LED lighting and 10 bottom floors of LED advertising.

What's that French expression? "Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose." Loosely translated, "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

But of course in LA it's the more things change, the more things change.

LAboomer52 · #**3459** Posted **Apr 2, 2011, 9:46 AM**

Thanks for the 1920s elevated info Sopas ej

seems like I saw a drawing of that somewhere. I know you guys posted some of the wacky plans for downtown over the years a while back.

I learned on Blogdowntown.com:
that in 1967 LA got 100 million federal grant for an automated people mover to connect Union Station with the convention Center.
After a lot of controversy, inflation and economic downturn, Reagan pulled the plug in 1981.

Check the renderings. Glad this one didn't happen!!
http://blogdowntown.com/2011/03/6176...ns-killed-when

gsjansen · #**3460** Posted **Apr 2, 2011, 3:59 PM**

didn't someone here once say, "they should have a button on the LAPL site that says click for new photos" ?

well here's something you don't see everyday, (well now you can, but not too long ago, nope).

aerial looking east across the plaza towards old chinatown

Source: LAPL

speaking of views you may not have seen before, take a gander at this..........

looking west on 2nd street from hill street before the tunnel 1920

Source: LAPL

wow!